The Name of Sorrow
by Queen Elsa Thropp
Summary: Glinda's attempt at a last goodbye. ONE-SHOT Please read and review. :)


Just a little one-shot that I wanted to write. Unrelated to my other stuff.

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Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, or Glinda the Good as she was more commonly known now, would be lying if she said she was happy with the situation in which she had been placed. One moment she'd been trying to get Elphie to let the girl from Kansis (or was it Kanziz? Spelling had never been her best subject.) go back; a moment later she was watching her best friend turn into a pile of green goo and a black hat.

And yet.

Elphaba had said Glinda wasn't to clear her name in Oz, implying that she'd know if her wishes were being followed. Upon going back to Kiamo Ko after sending all the Munchkins back to their rural lifestyle, Glinda had also noticed that the hat was gone. That had made her catch a rising sob in her throat and then made her think about what it could have meant.

She'd decided Elphie must be alive, but that opened up a whole new series of questions. Was Fiyero somehow with her? Because her new Captain of the Guard had reported his body missing. Did she ever plan on coming back? Because then Glinda would have to clear her name, right? Where was she now and could Glinda go to her? Because it didn't seem right to let her go away knowing that Glinda thought she was dead, and besides, didn't everyone have a right to get a real goodbye with their best friend? Not one followed by a horrendifying scene involving a staged death.

Suddenly it hit Glinda where Elphie must be, since she'd certainly have left Kiamo Ko by now. Since it was doubtful that she'd stayed there any time at all after what Glinda told herself repeatedly was a staged death.

Colwen Grounds.

Her birthright, the governor's house, taken away by her father because her family favored Nessarose. Glinda knew she'd never wanted the house anyways, but its importance now was as the site of Nessa's death, something for which she knew Elphie would always blame herself.

Walking briskly into the courtyard, Glinda climbed into the bubble that awaited her. The staff looked at her curiously, but she simply said that she had matters to attend to elsewhere and they let it go. She was, after all, Glinda the Good. Who would ever guess that she was trying to find the so-called (and supposed dead) Wicked Witch of the West?

Moments later, the large bubble slowed to a snail's pace and lowered itself gracefully onto the empty field where only days before Nessa's poor stockinged feet had been stripped of their shoes and then burned by a mob of underprivileged Munchkins. Stepping out of the contraption, Glinda turned in a full circle, stopping when she completed the turn.

There they were.

Elphie, her Elphie, and Fiyero. She had to admit, they made a cute couple. But it stung, more than she would admit even to herself, to see them holding hands, smiling at each others, and even kissing. Glinda wanted to call out, to let them know she was there, but clenched her teeth and blinked a few times to keep any tears from escaping. In the dark of night, it was hard to tell how they both looked, to tell if they were healthy, but she could feel their happiness radiating.

As she watched, Elphie knelt down and then stood up again, the ratty old broom from the Emerald Palace in her hand. Holding out her hand to Fiyero, she jumped onto the broom and it began to hover. Glinda took a step forward, determined this time to speak to the two before they left forever.

But she never got the chance to, for just as she opened her mouth, the broom rocketed off into the distance, taking away the girl who loved completely and the boy who, though brainless, was stubbornly single-minded, and leaving behind the girl who would never be able to tell them the thousands of things she wanted to.

Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, Glinda Upland, Glinda the Good, the girl who'd tried her whole life to be enough and had never felt she was, fell to her knees in Munchkinland, watching as the last two people who had ever meant anything to her flew into another life entirely. As they faded into a small dot on the horizon, she whispered her final goodbyes, unbeknownst to Elphaba and Fiyero.

_"Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good."_

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Hope you liked. Thanks for reading. :)  
-Queen Elsa Thropp


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